Move over Ferrari, F1 has a new team shambles as insider slams 'pathetic decision'

Ferrari are off the hook for now despite a recent history of embarrassing F1 strategy decisions, as an insider of the sport has slammed one of the Scuderia's rivals for a costly decision at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Last time out in Montreal, Ferrari star Lewis Hamilton secured his best result since making the move from Mercedes, with team-mate Charles Leclerc just missing out on a podium as things appear to finally fall into place at Maranello.

Following a P2 and P4 finish for Hamilton and Leclerc respectively, the Scuderia are now 41 points clear of their nearest rivals in the constructors' standings, McLaren.

The Woking-based squad once again endured a weekend to forget in Montreal at the same track where driver duo Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri collided with just three laps to go in the grand prix last season.

The source of their misery this time out wasn't due to driver rivalry, but instead, a tyre gamble that has been slammed by F1 journalist and former team manager Peter Windsor as 'pathetic'.

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McLaren's Canadian GP strategy blunder shows 'no confidence' in drivers

Reigning champion Norris failed to finish the fifth round of the F1 2026 campaign on Sunday and was forced to pull up to the side of the track on lap 40 thanks to a gearbox issue.

Piastri didn't fare much better, crossing the line in P11 after an incident with Alex Albon left him with a broken rear wing and a 10-second penalty from the FIA stewards for causing the collision.

But it was McLaren's bizarre decision to start both drivers on intermediate tyres despite there being no rain by the time the lights went out that has led Windsor to label Andrea Stella's squad as the new 'Team Shambles'.

In a YouTube video titled: 'McLaren Are PATHETIC!' Windsor said: "Another thing was McLaren's strategy, yet again. We used to talk about poor old Ferrari and their strategy, but I think we can now, in almost in perpetuity, we can pass the Team Shambles strategy award over to McLaren, can't we? In the absence of Zak [Brown, CEO], who was at Indianapolis, no doubt saying to himself, 'you know, I miss one race, look what happens, the whole team collapses', and yeah, but what was that all about?"

Windsor continued: "If you look at it from another viewpoint, which is that you should have one driver who should be capable of driving on slicks in semi-wet, slightly slippery conditions, and getting the best from the car. If you don't have at least one driver in your team at that level, then you haven't got the right two drivers in the car, and I would say that driver would be Oscar Piastri, because Lando, you would imagine, would be a little bit more circumspect in the wet, probably. I mean, he's very, very good on wets or intermediates in the wet, but if you've got to drive on slicks in the wet, in theory, you would give the nod to Oscar on that one."

It was actually Norris who took the blame for the questionable tyre strategy after the race, telling media: "It was kind of my decision, it was the wrong decision in the end, that's a hindsight thing."

But Windsor insisted it said more about McLaren as a team than their drivers, adding: "So, first thing is, if they were unsure, why didn't they split the strategies on the tyres? For a start, I suppose that's a difficult thing to do, you know [drivers saying] 'I don't want the intermediate, I don't want the slicks,' so they both went on intermediates.

"It's one thing if it's drizzling and you take the gamble to start on slicks, because you think it might dry out and your guy's good enough to get through the first two or three laps and only lose a couple of positions, and then be in perfect shape once everybody comes in for slicks.

"It's another thing to say, well, it's not raining now, but we think it might - we'll start you on intermediates. I mean, that's just absolutely - that shows absolutely no confidence in the talent of your drivers at all.

“And no wonder they both were obviously hung out to dry completely, and that was a decision, whether it was made by the computer, AI stroke strategy department or whether it was the two drivers insisting they go out on inters because they're so petrified on how the car would be on a wet kerb or something, I don't know, but there's something not right there because that was a pathetic decision," he concluded.

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Written by

Kerry Violet - F1 News Editor

Having graduated from the University of Sheffield with a 2:1 in Journalism in 2022, Kerry continued her pursuit of finding a full-time position in motorsport through work with the F1 Arcade in London, where she got to meet true fans of the sport and make a live grand prix watch party memorable for them. It was here that she confirmed her dream of combining her background in journalism and love of motorsport, going on to volunteer with the female-led platform Empoword Journalism. Having completed stints as a screen editor and sports editor, Kerry landed her first F1-specific editorial role with GPFans and has thoroughly enjoyed continuing to work closely with the sport ever since. The access GPFans offers Kerry has allowed her to interview big names such as Naomi Schiff and David Coulthard and given her experiences she could only have dreamt of as a young F1 fan.

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